FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – The store manager of a Family Dollar store was shocked when he was punched in a face by a woman accused of stealing from the store.

“She balls up her first and she socks me right in the eye!” said manager David Lowery. “I’m just stunned!”

Lowery said Shavoria Lewis punched him in the face. Lewis and her cousin Nakeita Redding are accused of racing through the Family Dollar Store at 30th and Broward Blvd, loading up bags, and then running out the door.

Lowery ran after them, snapping this picture of the “get-a-way” car that never really got away because the car wouldn’t start.

“They start yelling at me,” Lowery said. “They start freaking out, still can’t get their car to start, they pop the hood, they’re doing everything they can at this point trying to get away. “

That was the moment when Lowery said he was hit.

Lowery said that Redding removed the license plate from the car so he wouldn’t get a picture, but he was still able to get the tag.

“I looked inside the car,” said Lowery, “their plate was in there, she sheared off the two parts above the screw, she sheared it off. She was desperate, very desperate.”

Lowery said the pair took off, leaving the car behind. But the story doesn’t end there.

“One of the suspects calls our police department to file a report of her vehicle being stolen,” said Det. DeAnna Greenlaw from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

Lewis is the one who made the call.

“She apparently went back to recover her vehicle or have someone work on it for her,” said Greenlaw, “and it was not there, so that’s when she filed the stolen report.”

Lewis admits it’s her car, but said it was stolen and she had nothing to do with the robbery.

“How would they come up with you?” asked CBS4’s Ted Scouten.

“Maybe because the car was in my name,” Lewis said. She continued, “This is all just bull sh**, because it wasn’t me.”

“I’m innocent!” said Redding. “I was at home when that happened.” Redding said she had nothing to do with it either, even giving an alibi—yet said she didn’t know the date it happened, April 20th. “They didn’t even tell me when did this happen? I want to know when this happened?” she said. Scouten told her April 20th. “April 20th, I was at home with my kids around that time,” she said.

Investigators said that despite the denials, they believe they have the right women in custody.